Out With the Old: How to Keep a Tidy, Clutter-Free Closet

Having a varied wardrobe from which to pick the perfect outfit for every occasion is all well and good, but there’s a fine line between an ample wardrobe and an overwhelming one. Do you feel that maybe you’re taking too long to pick what to wear despite always choosing the same few clothes? That’s a surefire sign that it’s time to organize your closet.

The band-aid method

Out of all the decluttering method, we’ll show you in this article, this might be the most shocking for some, but it’s very effective. One by one, take out all the items in your closet, and stack them in one of four piles: Keep, Maybe, Donate, and Trash.

Keep, of course, is for those clothes that you won’t throw away no matter what, and should be the mainstays of your wardrobe; forget about feelings, and only use this stack for clothes that are still in heavy rotation. The Maybe pile is for clothes you’re not sure you can get rid of just yet, and we’ll come back to it later.

Donate is the pile for those pieces of clothing that, while still in good wearing condition, you know that you won’t use again, and can be taken to a shelter, Salvation Army store or wherever you know they’ll help someone. Trash is just that, trash; this pile is for clothes that are beyond repair and won’t do anyone any good.

Finally, put your Keep pile back in the closet in an organized manner, and separate the Maybe pile further into two more piles, Yes and No. Yes gets a place in the closet. No goes to Donation. The end!

The KonMari Method

Millions around America are now familiar with Marie Kondo thanks to her Netflix hit show, and for good reason. The central question posed by her KonMari method of tidying up is “does it bring joy”? And while it may sound a little corny to some, you’ll know the power of that question when you take the old high school sweatshirt that you keep for “sentimental value” and try to get rid of it.

According to Kondo, you can be grateful for the value that an item has brought to your life without that impeding you from parting with it after it has outlived its usefulness. Now, we’re not saying that you should speak out loud individually to each and every article of clothing in your closet, but we’re sure it will turn into an internal dialogue after a while; you’ll just know if something should stay or if it’s time to let it go.

Again, just because something has outlived its usefulness for you, that doesn’t mean that someone else can’t use it after you decide that you’ll part with something, put it in a donation pile like in the method above.

The longer-but-gentler method

So maybe you’re not the type to just get rid of stuff just like that. And that’s OK too! As long as you keep your will to improve, something can be done. This is a way to clean out your closet but not get rid of anything just yet.

What you’ll want to do is take out all the clothes out of your closet as per the two other methods. Take a moment to choose which clothes you’ll be wearing regularly and put those back in the closet, then box up everything that was left out. Now you can retrieve any item that you regret taking out of the closet, but after a year, anything still in the box has to go. Don’t even look inside before taking them out of the house!

Yes, waiting a year to complete a closet-cleanse is perhaps a bit too much, but remember that we’re taking baby steps here. Compliment your effort by not buying too many clothes in the meantime. And of course, don’t put borrowed clothes in the box, we’re sure their owners will love to see those again.

These three approaches will yield similar results, which one you choose depends mostly on what kind of person you are. Also, now that you got the ball rolling how to clean out the closet and get rid of clothes, why not take that attitude out of the bedroom and give the same attention to other rooms in your house as well?

Having a varied wardrobe from which to pick the perfect outfit for every occasion is all well and good, but there’s a fine line between an ample wardrobe and an overwhelming one. Do you feel that maybe you’re taking too long to pick what to wear despite always choosing the same few clothes? That’s a surefire sign that it’s time to organize your closet.

The band-aid method

Out of all the decluttering method, we’ll show you in this article, this might be the most shocking for some, but it’s very effective. One by one, take out all the items in your closet, and stack them in one of four piles: Keep, Maybe, Donate, and Trash.

Keep, of course, is for those clothes that you won’t throw away no matter what, and should be the mainstays of your wardrobe; forget about feelings, and only use this stack for clothes that are still in heavy rotation. The Maybe pile is for clothes you’re not sure you can get rid of just yet, and we’ll come back to it later.

Donate is the pile for those pieces of clothing that, while still in good wearing condition, you know that you won’t use again, and can be taken to a shelter, Salvation Army store or wherever you know they’ll help someone. Trash is just that, trash; this pile is for clothes that are beyond repair and won’t do anyone any good.

Finally, put your Keep pile back in the closet in an organized manner, and separate the Maybe pile further into two more piles, Yes and No. Yes gets a place in the closet. No goes to Donation. The end!

The KonMari Method

Millions around America are now familiar with Marie Kondo thanks to her Netflix hit show, and for good reason. The central question posed by her KonMari method of tidying up is “does it bring joy”? And while it may sound a little corny to some, you’ll know the power of that question when you take the old high school sweatshirt that you keep for “sentimental value” and try to get rid of it.

According to Kondo, you can be grateful for the value that an item has brought to your life without that impeding you from parting with it after it has outlived its usefulness. Now, we’re not saying that you should speak out loud individually to each and every article of clothing in your closet, but we’re sure it will turn into an internal dialogue after a while; you’ll just know if something should stay or if it’s time to let it go.

Again, just because something has outlived its usefulness for you, that doesn’t mean that someone else can’t use it after you decide that you’ll part with something, put it in a donation pile like in the method above.

The longer-but-gentler method

So maybe you’re not the type to just get rid of stuff just like that. And that’s OK too! As long as you keep your will to improve, something can be done. This is a way to clean out your closet but not get rid of anything just yet.

What you’ll want to do is take out all the clothes out of your closet as per the two other methods. Take a moment to choose which clothes you’ll be wearing regularly and put those back in the closet, then box up everything that was left out. Now you can retrieve any item that you regret taking out of the closet, but after a year, anything still in the box has to go. Don’t even look inside before taking them out of the house!

Yes, waiting a year to complete a closet-cleanse is perhaps a bit too much, but remember that we’re taking baby steps here. Compliment your effort by not buying too many clothes in the meantime. And of course, don’t put borrowed clothes in the box, we’re sure their owners will love to see those again.

These three approaches will yield similar results, which one you choose depends mostly on what kind of person you are. Also, now that you got the ball rolling how to clean out the closet and get rid of clothes, why not take that attitude out of the bedroom and give the same attention to other rooms in your house as well?